


Milestones

by GrimSylphie



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Slice of Life, Talk of Parenthood, Torture, team as a family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25831519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimSylphie/pseuds/GrimSylphie
Summary: The more time Nile spends with the team the more she realized the milestones she thought she thought she might hit in her life (romance, children, moving up in the military) would never happen. At least not how she imagined them.Her new family teachers her about other milestones and ways to count your life when stretches out for centuries before you.
Relationships: Andy | Andromache & Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Joe | Yusuf al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Quynh | Noriko, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 22
Kudos: 225





	1. Children

**Author's Note:**

> A quick little series about how priorities and the milestones that you might mark your life by change when you’re immortal. I may continue it at some point as I have a few more ideas for chapters.

When you become immortal, certain milestones in life are lost to you. They aren’t things everyone counts by, especially in modern society. It’s loss of the option, the choice to have that milestone that an immortal mourns. 

Nile learns this quickly when Booker explained how his family died resentful of something he did not wish for and would not control but she doesn’t understand it until much later.

It’s about two years in over coffee (Irish in Andy’s case) as the family sits around the table that Nile asks. “Hey Andy, did you ever have kids?” The room goes silent, Booker opens one eye but does not move from where he’s slouching. Joe’s charcoal has stopped running frantically across his sketchbook in an effort to catch the way Nicky’s mouth twists as he concentrates on a crossword puzzle. Andy herself is silent, his coffee mug held up mid sip. 

It’s not until a tense moment passes that she sets it down. “No.” She replies. Another beat of a silence. “I was a warrior in my mortal life. I never met a man that could match me so I never sought out companionship with them. After I became immortal... well it never seemed to be an issue.”

Nile looked incredulous. “So what, we stay the same age, always heal, but we can’t get pregnant?” It didn’t seem to add up. Sure, the stress of their lifestyle meant she skipped her period from time to time and it was way shorter than it had ever been before but she would have thought it’s presence was enough to prove that they could get pregnant.

“It’s not something I really thought about pursuing. Kids would have been a detriment in this life style. Besides, if they were mortal it would mean losing them, setting yourself up for tragedy. If they were immortal. That could be so much worse.” Andy admitted.

Nile looked confused. “What do you mean? You’d have your family beside you forever. How could that be worse?”

Booker finally opened his eyes and looked longingly towards the bottle of whiskey Andy kept locked up in an attempt to keep him sober. It was conversations like this that made him remember why he spent so much time drunk for so long. “Up until recently kids didn’t have a great probability of surviving to adulthood. If some illness took the kid at say five, they might be an immortal five year old. There are so many things we can’t explain about ourselves. How could we know if a kid would mentally develop past the age they died even if they were immortal? More than that, it would mean watching your child die again and again and always hoping that this time wouldn’t be the time they didn’t come back.” 

Booker stood from the table. “On that note. I need a walk.” 

Andy followed him, probably just as eager to end the conversation. More than that though, she had taken to making sure Booker didn’t falter in his sobriety.

Once the door shut Nile looked at Nicky and Joe and noticed they had not resumed their respective activities. “Guess I really killed the mood, eh?” 

Nicky set down his pen (who did a crossword in pen anyway?) and the newspaper. “Booker is always sensitive about children. One day we hope he will heal enough that his loss doesn’t rip him anew each time we discuss it.” 

Joe closed his sketchbook and nodded. “And Andy doesn’t particularly like being seen as anything other than a fierce warrior. It’s not you, it’s just history has asked her far too often to be more mothering and less like herself.” 

Nile nodded. “I get that. It’s not how I meant it but she’s had to deal with thousands of years of misogyny. I guess after that she earned the right to be defensive.”

Nicky hummed for a moment. As if he was trying to decide something. A nod from Joe seemed to settle it. “Joe and I have found that in our life that while biological children may not be a good option, adopting children can be just as fulfilling if you want to experience parenthood.” 

Nile was surprised. She thought she knew most everything about them, especially given how often Joe told her about their countless centuries together. “Really? You guys have had kids?”

Joe nodded. “Of course, my Nicoló and I are overflowing with love and sometimes in our immortal life we have encountered children who had no one left in the world. We have always taken them in as our own.” 

Nicky continued. “Ten or twenty years off is not so much when you know you will have so many more with your immortal family.”

Nile was fascinated. Given how Nicky and Joe had taken her in she was confident they were probably excellent parents. “Did they know about you? That you couldn’t stay dead?” She remembered what Booker told her about his family and couldn’t imagine Nicky and Joe going through that repeatedly. 

Joe nodded. “Yeah, it was different for us then for Booker. We saved most of our kids from certain death. We took them in and gave them a home and an opportunity to live their life. Most of them realized, either when we saved them or when we didn’t age what we were. If they asked, we told them we didn’t know why or how. They seemed to understand that were were just trying to do good with the lives we were given and when they were adults, we were so fortunate to get to see them do the same.”

Nicky continued, finally answering the questions that had been running through Nile’s head. “Booker’s children had been raised knowing their parents would sacrifice everything for them. Booker mentioned he was conscripted after he was caught forging? Most of what he forged was documents and money that would allow him to feed his children and get them into better schools then he could have afforded in his own. To have your father sacrifice everything for you and yet not help end your suffering when he was going to live forever was too much for Booker’s sons to understand. How can you explain something you don’t understand, yourself?”

Nile was conflicted. She had always imagined having children somewhere down the line. Maybe just because it was what was expected of her... but she liked kids. She enjoyed her little cousins. Adoption seemed to work out for Joe and Nicky but how did they know it would turn out well. “So all of them loved you with out the resentment Booker felt from his kids?”

Joe and Nicky both smiled at one another and nodded. “Yes, we have been fortunate. I think, some of that comes from that we never went looking for these children or went through a formal adoption process. These were kids we saved from the worst situations, massacres, genocide, plagues, inquisitions. I think they saw us as much as guardian angels as parents. They were grateful for life in whatever form it took and we did our best to make sure they lived great lives. I don’t know that it would be the same if we just adopted a child who didn’t know that kind of suffering. It’s possible they wouldn’t be able to accept the injustice of parents who would watch them live and watch them die without ever aging a day.” Nicky explained.

“We never went into a situation with the intent of bringing a child into our family. Children are all too often the victims of war. If we tried to personally help every child we would fall under the weight of the ones we failed to save. Sometimes we found someone we couldn’t ignore. A little girl in Tunis with eyes as bright and fierce as Andy. A boy in the Balkans with a sadness we would see reflected in Booker’s eyes years later. It was always destiny as Nicoló would say. They needed someone and we were there.” Joe explained, before leaning in to touch his forehead to Nicky’s, a chaste kiss shared between them.

When they pulled away Nicky spoke up again. “Nile, a woman has a certain number of chances to become a mother, yes?” He seemed awkward. It was probably true, she couldn’t my imagine Nicky had much experience with the reproductive process. “You run out of eggs and the cycle stops if I recall correctly?” 

It was an oversimplification but Nile knew what he meant. “I mean, yeah I guess.” She answered not sure where this was going but not wanting to discourage what she hoped might be a good natured attempt to connect.

“Then, while I’m not an expert, I would think barring internal complications that there would be a chance at motherhood as long as you have a cycle. How likely is unknown but if it’s something you ever decided you wanted we would support you.” He finished with a smile.

Nile couldn’t help but laugh. “I think I have enough to adjust to without a kid but I’ll keep that in mind.” If she ever wanted a mom it probably wouldn’t be the way she planned with a husband or wife and a picket fence but at least she had options and a family to support her.


	2. Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter features some Booker abuse. He gets rewarded in the end though.

Nile learned seven years in that immortals had their own sort of milestones. First, a mission had gone awry. Booker had been pinned down and captured. The boss of the human trafficking ring had taken him to their safehouse as a hostage when the team had raided the base where they kept most of their victims. 

The safehouse was well guarded. The plan was to have Nicky ensure no one escaped this time from a sniper’s nest and Joe guarding his six and acting as a spotter. That meant without Booker they would need another member unless they wanted Joe on the ground. Doing so would leave Nicky vulnerable so they called Quynh. The petite woman didn’t join them often. She was still learning how to exist in a world so unlike the one she had been forced out of. She was still coming to terms with her family’s failure to save her. Still, she had a soft spot for Booker and he for her. They dreamt of each other’s pain, anger, and sorrow for two hundred years and it formed a bond that one one else could quite fathom. The two texted each other daily once Quynh figured out how and they even had a weekly video chat where they caught up. The rest of the team agreed that it was kind of weird but also good for them both. This was all to say that Quynh had every intention of killing the people who took Booker with great prejudice and no one on the team would’ve been able to stop her even if they wanted to.

The raid went well. They found a few more victims in the upper levels who had been kept by the ring’s inner circle. Nile managed to ensure they all left without a fight. That was fortunate, she learned on a previous bust of one of these rings that sometimes the Stockholm syndrome led those abused by the highest ranking members to think they had to defend them. After being shot once by a sobbing nineteen year old who had been missing for ten years she never wanted to experience that again. 

They easily cleared most of the high ranking members as well. Quynh was creative but quick with their deaths. Most took an arrow to the eye or their groin. One unlucky man must have talked back because Quynh had somehow pinned his lifeless body to the wall by his tongue.

They continued to clear the building until they reached the basement/dungeon combination most of these buildings seemed to have. There they found the leader there. He and some lower ranking men seemed to have run Booker through the wringer. The Frenchman was unconscious, covered in blood, his nails appeared to have been ripped out, and some of his bones seemed to be popping back into place. It was uncomfortable but it was all standard torture methods. What they had prepared for Booker however wasn’t. They were holding a bucket over his head and they managed to pour dome out before Quynh and Andy seemed to hit Booker’s attacker’s simultaneously.

When the liquid hit Booker’s skin the effect was immediate. It turned red, bubbling and raw before blood started coming out as the skin dissolved. The blood had touched the acid so it left burnt and blistering tracks as it dripped down Booker’s body. Booker who had been silent until now starts to scream as it eats through parts of his face and shoulders, chest and back. His muscles go next and it reaches down to the bone. It’s the worst wound Nile has seen over these past few years. 

Andy and Quynh are not frozen by the inhumanity of it the way Nile is. Andy moves to untie Booker, trying to avoid touching the acid. Quynh wraps her arms around Booker ignoring the pain as the small amount of acid remaining starts to burn through her skin. “It’s okay Sebastien, we’re here, we are going to take you home.”

Booker’s sobs are heartwrenching but the acid is already slowing as Booker’s body attempts to heal him around it. Nile comes over and helps undo the bonds where Andy hadn’t reached yet. Her fingers burned with the trace amount of acid but a lot of it sunk into the chains holding Booker. Once free Booker slumped into Quynh’s arms. At some point Booker must have died because Nile noticed his screams had stopped. 

Quynh despite her small stature insisted on carrying Booker. By the time they reached the entrance and regrouped Booker had revived. He was pale, his breath shallow as he struggled through the pain. 

“Book, you look like shit.” Joe commented. Booker’s face was still healing muscle visible in some places. 

“Not as bad as you the time with the landmine.” Booker wheezed back. 

Joe laughed. “Yeah, but my Nicky carries me so gently for those short hours while my legs grew back.” 

They piled into the van and headed back to the safe house. Andy and Nile were in the front, Nile manning the GPS since Andy still had no clue how it worked. Joe and Nicky were in the middle cuddling as per usual. Meanwhile Booker leaned on Quynh and she ran a hand through his hair to comfort him. 

About twenty minutes in Joe spoke up. “Hey Book, does this put you at 250?” Joe asks. 

Booker moans slightly. “It does, it also knocks acid off the list which is something I never want to experience again.”

Joe nodded and pulled open his notebook. “Yeah, I think Andy and I are the only other ones with acid since no one would dare damage my Nicolo’s beauty like that. It hurt like nothing else though. At least it wasn’t shoved down your throat”

Booker huffed slightly. “Small miracles.”

Nile spoke up then. “Are you saying you keep track of who died how?” 

“Only the more unique ways.” Joe offered. “We also count how many different ways we’ve died. Booker here just hit a milestone number.”

“We’ll have to throw a party.” Andy chimed in. 

It was somewhat macabre but after hundreds of years she guessed she couldn’t expect anything less from the other immortals. “So how many am I at?”

“37.” Joe answered without hesitation. “You get your first party after you hit 50!”


End file.
